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Monday, May 01, 2006

Latas for Congress

I live far away from Tucson, but I pitched in a few to the Jeff Latas for Congress campaign. I initially contributed because I heard that his veteran son needs a bone marrow transplant, but now that I looked at his platform I really have a feeling that the Fighting Dem can make a difference. Latas has a degree in aerospace engineering and spent most of his career as an fighter pilot, and likely developed a good perspective from the first gulf war:

We're now paying nearly three dollars a gallon for gas. But the cost is really much higher. What most Americans don't see is the additional cost of the occupation of Iraq, a misguided attempt to stabilize the Middle Eastern region to keep a steady flow of oil to fuel our economy. This occupation has a price tag of $160 billion a year. That's over $500 per American citizen per year! The highest and latest cost of our oil addiction is being paid by the families of the nearly 2400 Americans who died in Iraq, and the untold others who have died after their return home. This is too much for me. It should be too much for the rest of America. We must end our addiction to oil now. Doing so is healthy for our country. Our national security improves, our environment improves, our economy improves, we become a stronger nation, and we can once again become the global leader in innovation and technology. The current gas crisis is only the tip of this iceberg. Every year at this time, gas prices spike. Last year, the big news was gas prices over $2.25 a gallon. By summer it was over $2.80. It will go higher this year, and even higher next year. Oil is harder to find and extract. Half of the oil on our planet is gone. That took around 100 years. At our current consumption rate, we may have only 30 years remaining. Supply and demand rules here. Supply is limited and demand has increased radically in only the last five years. We have no choice but to end our dependence on oil; it's up to us to select when. I say we must start now, because we should have started in 1974, when the first warning shot was fired with the oil embargo. We are behind, and our standard of living will suffer. You have a choice to send someone to Congress who understands this extreme problem. I am the only engineer running for this Congressional seat and I will be one of the few engineers in Congress. This is one of many technological problems this nation will face, and we need representatives in Congress who understand technological solutions.

Climate Primates

"Tell people something they know already and they will thank you for it. Tell them something new and they will hate you for it." - George Monbiot

"In news the rule is that liberals will watch the news, and conservatives will watch conservative news. A liberal will watch to see what you think, the conservative will watch to see how much you agree with him. This is why the headline world is so far to the right even of the content." - Stirling Newberry

"... it is calculable fact, week after week, on show after show -- unless you consider the mere act of reporting itself to be a 'liberal' act, which many movement conservatives do. " - Hunter

"The sneakiest form of literary subtlety, in a corrupt society, is to speak the plain truth. The critics will not understand you; the public will not believe you; your fellow writers will shake
their heads." - Edward Abbey

"The people of ____ have been led in ____ into a trap from which it will be hard to escape with dignity and honour. They have been tricked into it by a steady withholding of information. The ____ communiques are belated, insincere, incomplete. Things have been far worse than we have been told, our administration more bloody and inefficient that the public knows... We are today not far from a disaster." - TE Lawrence

"My life's the disease that could always change
With comparative ease, just given the chance
My life is the earth, 'twixt muscle and spade
I wait for the worth, digging for just one chance
As prospects diminish, as nightmares swell
Some pray for Heaven while we live in Hell" - E&TB

"The juicy stories keep popping out ... like clowns from a clown car." - James Wolcott"Why don't they talk about the issues?! We're fighting for our LIVES here!!" - Marc Maron"That's it man, game over man, game over, man! Game over!" - Hudson played by Bill Paxton-- Irwin Shaw, The Young Lions